Volume 7 Chapter 80
A motorcade of twenty large transport Magic Cars was moving through the Drow Race Kingdom to the Namco Mines in the northeast province.
This mind had been controlled by the Drow Race before, but after the Frestech Chamber of Commerce entered the Drow Race Kingdom, they started investing in the mines. Now there was a cooperation between the two sides which had greatly increased the amount of minerals mined from this mine.
However, when the riots appeared in the Drow Race Kingdom a few years ago, the local Drow Race had claimed that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had stolen this mine from them. They had carried out extremely bloody retaliation against the Frestech Chamber of Commerce staff and had stolen this mine back.
But this didn’t last. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce sent their guards into the Drow Race Kingdom and suppressed the riots with force.
The local Drow Race that had retaliated against the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s staff had all been caught without a single exception, with a small part of them being executed directly. The control of this mine had of course fallen back into the hands of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
After several years, the mine had greatly improved under the management of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. The production capacity of minerals had gone from a few dozen tons a month to close to a thousand tons.
Of the ores mined, other than a small portion that was left for the companies of the Drow Race Kingdom, the other portions were all packed into the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s transport convoy. They were brought south to the southern harbour and then transferred to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base to be refined.
This was one of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s several dozen mines on the continent, as well as being one of the mines that the Frestech Mineral Chamber of Commerce didn’t disclose.
The Frestech Mineral Chamber of Commerce was able to meet the large demand for steel and non-ferrous metal products mainly because of the output from this Namco Mine.
After the convoy entered the mine, they entered deep into the mines without a single question and came to where the ores were being stacked.
The manager of the mine, Aback, had already prepared everything. When the convoy arrived, he immediately ordered the large Magic Bulldozer waiting there to start loading it up.
Each large transport Magic Car could be loaded with around twenty tons and twenty of them could only carry five hundred tons.
The last time this convoy came was already four months ago, so there had been over three thousand tons of ores that had accumulated in this mine.
This convoy would have to keep working for at least three days before they could transport all the accumulated ores.
The convoy leader Zeberto had already led this convoy several times, so he was familiar with this process. After stopping, he jumped out from the passenger seat.
“Hey, Zeberto. Let the brothers rest first. You’ve come this far, how about we have a meal and drink some wine first?” Aback greeted Zeberto in a very friendly manner.
Zeberto’s rough face from the years on the road revealed a frank smile and he patted Aback’s shoulder. He said in a loud voice while laughing, “Of course we have to eat and we have to eat well. Tell me, Aback, did you prepare a lot of meat?”
“Of course, of course. I’ve always prepared well each time, it isn’t like you don’t know that.” Because Aback worked in the mines, his smiling face was even darker than Zeberto’s face, “Relax, I’ve had people buy two of the best goats from the surrounding area ahead of time, you’ll definitely be satisfied.”
“Un, great!” Zeberto gave a satisfied nod, “The taste of the lamb from this area…..Ze, my mouth can’t help but water. It’s this could outside, being able to gather around a hotpot to eat lamb really is enjoyable. But it’s a pity…..we can’t drink the wine. You should know that our brothers will be delivering the goods this afternoon and it’ll delay the matter if we drink.”
“Wu…..That’s right. But even if you can’t drink while eating, when the brothers come home tonight, I can entertain them then. Drinking before sleeping, it wouldn’t affect your work the next day, right?”
“It’s a pity that this assignment is very rushed, so most of the brothers won’t be able to stay the night, so let’s just forget about the alcohol.” Zeberto patted Aback’s shoulder and said with a sigh, “I decline your goodwill on behalf of the brothers. You just have to take care of the food, we’ll have a chance to drink in the future.”
“Is that so? That really is a pity.” Aback curled his lips. His expression suddenly changed as he asked ,”Tell me……why are you in such a rush this time? Is it……”
Zeberto looked at Aback, “Don’t guess at what upper management is thinking, we just need to finish our work.”
Aback was surprised as he silently gave a nod.
The two looked at the ores being loaded for a bit before Zeberto waved his hand at Aback, ”Come, let’s go see the mine and see if everything is fine here.”
“Alright.”
Aback knew that other than being in charge of transporting ores, Zeberto was also in charge of inspecting the mines. He would conduct an inspection of each mine he was transporting ores from and then he would report it up, which could be considered an inspection from the upper management.
It was also because of this that he tried so hard to build a good relationship with Zeberto.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t bother flattering a simple transport team’s leader like this.
The two went around the mine and Zeberto kept looking around, occasionally asking a few questions, but not saying much else.
But seeing that he didn’t have any notes after walking around, Aback felt more relaxed.
Without any special notes, it didn’t mean that the inspection was good, but at least it meant that there weren’t any problems.
The upper management would be satisfied with his work, which would increase Aback’s own evaluation and would help him get promoted earlier so he could leave this damn place.
After the two inspected the mines, they chatted as they prepared to head to the living quarters of the mine.
Aback already had someone prepare a delicious lunch and was planning on entertaining Zeberto and his convoy.
But halfway there, there was suddenly a loud sound from outside the mine that seemed like people were charging over.
Aback’s expression suddenly changed.
Zeberto on the side looked in the direction of the noise and then seeing Aback’s strange expression, he asked in a surprised voice, “What is going on?”
Aback waved his hand with a forced smile, “Nothing, nothing important……”
Zeberto’s expression sank as he knitted his brows, “Aback, don’t blame me for not reminding you that the important people of the company don’t mind incidents, but they can’t stand things not being reported. I urge you to not hide anything. I can tell that this isn’t a small matter.”
Aback’s expression changed a few times before he finally gave a dejected sigh.
“I know……Ai, it really isn’t anything big, it’s just…..some defiant people causing trouble.”
“Defiant people?” Zeberto was even more surprised, “What defiant people?”
Aback pointed at the entrance to the mine, “You’ll understand if you take a look.”
Zeberto was confused as he came to the entrance with Aback, but looking out, he was surprised.
Namco Mine was like most other mines, it was based in the wilderness and there weren’t many people around it.
However, at the foot of the mine, there was a crowd that was gathered there. If one looked at it, they would see that there were over a thousand people here.
There were only fifty guards recruited locally that were in charge of the mine’s safety. Although they had received the Magic Repeating Crossbows from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they were very weak when facing this large crowd of a thousand people.
Zeberto looked over and found that these people came with purpose because there were several banners among the crowd.
Seeing what was written on the banners, Zeberto’s expression became a bit strange.
“Namco Mine belongs to us Drows, outsiders should get out!”
“The Frestech Chamber of Commerce should scram out of Namco! Give us back our peace!”
“Pledge to fight to death for our homeland!”
……
“Aback, where did these people come from?” Zeberto pointed at the crowd in front of him as he asked this.
Aback spread his hands and gave a sigh, “I don’t know either. Starting last month, there were over a few dozen of them that came here asking us to give the mines back, but then more and more people came. Then you can see…..how many people gathered here in the end.”
“This isn’t right.” Zeberto knitted his brows as he said in a confused voice, “Didn’t these fellows learn a lesson from the riots last time? Could it be that they didn’t see the fate of the Drow Race who had participated in the riots? If they keep doing this, are they really not afraid of angering our company?”
Aback revealed a bitter smile, “The problem is that they’ve only been protesting the entire time and haven’t made a move. We don’t have a reason to make a move against them like last time.”
“Then just drive them away, are you going to keep them here?”
“That depends on if we can drive them away.” Aback gave a bitter laugh, “They haven’t just caused trouble once or twice. I couldn’t take it two times before and asked the guards situated near Drow City to drive them away, but they just came right back. I can’t just ask the guards to catch them all, can I?”
“What are the guards of the mines doing then? Why are they just standing there?” Zeberto asked.
“These guards are locals and there’s so few of them, so there’s no use depending on them.” Aback said in a helpless voice.
Zeberto looked at the guards at the entrance of the mine, standing there in a daze without any intentions of driving this crowd off. He knew that Aback was right, there was no use depending on these local guards.
“Then did you talk to them? What do they want?”
“I have, but it’s no use.” Aback shook his head and said with a sigh, “These fellows want the mine, how could I agree to hand the mines over to them?”
“Then did you give them some money?”
“It didn’t work, they wouldn’t negotiate at all.”
Zeberto deeply knitted his brows. Looking at the crowd shouting at the entrance to the mine, he understood something.
These fellows clearly had someone behind them that was targeting this mine.
It might even…..be the person behind them was targeting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
“How did you drive them off before? I’m talking about when you didn’t get the guards to come?” Zeberto asked.
“There’s no other way, we can only wait for them to scatter after they get tired.” Aback said with a bitter smile.
“You have to wait for them to scatter?” Zeberto turned to look at the several large transport Magic Cars filled with ores that had been blocked by the crowd at the entrance to the mine, so they were forced to stop there.
“No, it will delay matters too much if this happens.”
Zeberto knitted his brows. He prepared to go over and negotiate with those people.
However, when he took a few steps, there was suddenly the sound of crossbows being fired that rang out.
Looking over in a daze, he saw the crowd at the door scatter as a spot opened in between them.
In that open spot, a middle aged man was lying back with eyes bulging out as disbelief covered his face.
There was a crossbow bolt in his left chest and endless blood spurted from that spot, instantly covering the ground beneath him in red.
The crowd that had been making noise suddenly fell silent.
After half a minute, this deathly silence was broken by a sharp and loud voice.
“Murder! The Frestech Chamber of Commerce are killing people!”